Year 13 Investigation assessment, 2014

Edit 0 6 …
Internal Assessment Resource
History Level 3
Achievement Standard 91434 Research an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sourcesResource title: History matters: What was the background to the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840?5 credits Due: at the end of Term 1

Internal Assessment Resource
Achievement Standard History 91434: Research an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources
Resource reference: History 3.1B
Resource title: History matters
Credits: 5
Achievement
 Achievement with Merit
 Achievement with Excellence
Research an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources.
 Research, in depth, an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources.
 Comprehensively research an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources.
Student instructions

Introduction
Carrying out research is an important process in history. Historians are like detectives – material such as letters, cartoons, diaries, and newspaper accounts can reveal secrets about the past and lead historians to think differently about history.
This assessment activity requires you to research one historical event or place that is of significance to New Zealanders.
This is an individual assessment activity and will take place using in-class and out-of-class time. You have five weeks to complete this activity.
You will be assessed on the quality of your research (including your ability to follow a research process and to annotate the evidence you select) and your evaluation of your own research process.

Task1 Define an area of historical research and plan your research
Prepare a research proposal: identify an event or place that you will investigate. Explain in a paragraph or two why you consider it a significant topic for New Zealanders now or in the past.
Develop relevant focus questions. These need to be open-ended and written in such a way that they allow appropriate breadth and depth in your research.

Task 2 Identification of Possible Sources Page
Through your preliminary reading, identify and note a range of specific primary and secondary sources that could provide evidence to answer your focus questions. Resource A below may be useful for you. For each possible source specifically identify ways in which the source appears that it may be useful.
9 Primary Source; 11 Secondary Source required here

Task 3 Develop a time-management plan.
This needs to be specific and include details such as which focus question will be researched, using what sources, where, and on which date.
Discuss with your teacher the steps that you have taken up to this point. If applicable, discuss the different points of view (of those concerned and of historians) that are likely to emerge from your research.

Task 4 Select and organise relevant evidence
Select from a variety of other primary and secondary sources evidence that is useful and relevant to your focus questions and which helps to establish the significance of the event or place to New Zealanders.
Indicate specifically which evidence is relevant to your focus questions by highlighting and colour coding, the selected evidence. Also write/annotate in the margin of this hand-written, photocopied evidence why this is relevant AND helpful to your investigation.


Task 5 Turn to your FOCUS QUESTION ANSWER PAGES.
Each Focus question will have it's separate pages and a heading FOCUS QUESTION NO. [ ] and what that question is. Please indicate what HIGHLIGHTER COLOUR THIS FOCUS QUESTION IS.

Beneath that heading have two columns: Source on the lefthand side and Answer on the right.

Record the Source and explain how your evidence answers your focusing questions and provide an example/extract from the evidence. You must also explain whether, to what extent, and why you think think information is valuable and whether, to what extent, or not it is reliable.
-you must assess the comparative usefulness of a piece of evidence to the focus question(s) being investigated. This means you need to come to some kind of judgement about "the extent to which" that evidence is more or less useful/valuable to answering your questions when compared to other evidence.
-you must assess the comparative reliability when compared to other evidence.

Doing the task 5 allows us to demonstrate that we have "Organise your evidence in a way that allows quick and easy location of relevant evidence when you need it."

Task 6 Your Evaluation of the Research Process
Demonstrate evidence of the use of initiative in the research process. This includes, for example, going beyond easily accessed sources (such as school resources or the Internet) or by persevering with particularly challenging evidence. Other examples of initiative and perseverance could include working through difficult old-fashioned English or legal jargon [words].

Go back to your Focus Question Annotations for this stuff: you must assess the comparative usefulness of a piece of evidence to the focus question(s) being investigated. This means you need to come to some kind of judgement about "the extent to which" that evidence is more or less useful/valuable to answering your questions when compared to other evidence.
-you must assess the comparative reliability when compared to other evidence.

-Evaluate the effectiveness of your research process.
  • Explain the successes and difficulties encountered in conducting your research.
  • Explain how the line of inquiry may have changed as evidence was accumulated.
  • Identify the issues to consider for future inquiries.
  • Analyse the strength(s) and weakness(es) of your research process.
  • Analyse how these strength(s) and weakness(es) are likely to impact on the validity of your findings.
  • Consider alternative research steps and/or line(s) of inquiry and/or methods, and their implications.
  • How can you use this information in the future or in other subjects at school?
this is a really important part of your research assessment. This is the piece that gets you Merits and Excellences!! Yahoozee.

Task 7 Record source details you have already got this underway in your bibliographies!
Accurately record the full details of all your sources as you have been taught. Record these details at the beginning of each piece of evidence. Note: a formal bibliography is not needed.

Final submission At the end of Term 1
Hand in your:
  • research proposal, focus questions and identification of possible sources evidence
  • selected evidence that is sufficient for purpose, has relevant sections of evidence clearly indicated, is organised and annotated, source details recorded, and use of initiative in its gathering and/or selecting is evident
  • evaluation.
Resource A
Cartoons
  • Local history books
  • Films or TV documentaries
  • Public and school libraries.




Assessment schedule: History 91434 History matters
Evidence/Judgements for Achievement
 Evidence/Judgements for Achievement with Merit
 Evidence/Judgements for Achievement with Excellence
The student has researched an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources. This means the student has:
  • planned the research, for example:
- prepared a research proposal explaining the importance of conducting the research e.g. “This investigation will examine the significance of significance of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is an important topic because many New Zealanders were directly affected by this event...”
- developed relevant focus questions from preliminary research e.g. What economic, religious, humanitarian and social reasons brought Europeans to NZ? Why did the British want to have a Treaty with Maori? Why was the Treaty of Waitangi significant to New Zealanders at the time?
- specifically identified possible sources through preliminary reading (e.g. www.nzhistory.org – relevant photos and sound files, links to other relevant sites) . 9 Primary; 11 Secondary.
- created a time-management plan (e.g. date on which a specified library will be visited and what resources in the library will be accessed to find evidence for which aspect of which focus question)
-
  • selected and organised relevant historical evidence from both primary and secondary sources (e.g. relevant evidence is clearly identified by highlighting or similar means and directly linked to a focus question. This highlighting can also provide evidence of organisation, or organisation is by sorting of evidence by source type, focus question, etc.) Excerpts are entered into FOCUS QUESTION ANSWER PAGES. ALONG SIDE THIS IS COMMENT ON HOW THE INFORMATION ANSWERS THE QUESTION AND WHETHER IT IS VALUABLE IN TERMS OF AUTHENTICTY, DETAIL AND RELIABILITY EACH FQ PAGE IS COLOUR CODED WITH THE FOCUS QUESTION’S COLOUR
  • THESE constitute annotated comments describing the links between the selected evidence and the focus question (e.g. Relevant to FQ1. This source answers my question by explaining that ….. It is not as good as the “God Save NZ” DVD – less detailed)
  • recorded the details of the sources of selected evidence (e.g. author, title, publisher, city of publication, date of publication; website address, accession date; name of interviewee, date and place of interview) in a Bibliography and a separate “Identification of Possible Sources”
  • evaluated his/her research process, for example by explaining the successes and difficulties encountered in conducting the research, explaining how the line of inquiry may have changed as evidence was accumulated, identifying the issues to consider for future inquiries (e.g. “I struck many difficulties in carrying out this research. Probably the biggest one came first. I went to the local library and couldn’t understand the language in letters and documents written previously to 1840. However, I persevered and asked others what some of the language meant. Although this was gathering second hand information I am confident that what I got was accurate – up to a point. In some ways I would probably have been better to have spent my time researching secondary sources first so that I understood more of the context of what people were writing about. Sure enough, I did later find sources, which contradicted what I had interpreted the primary sources to mean…For example…”
The examples above relate to only part of what is required, and are just indicative.
 The student has researched, in depth, an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources. This means the student has:
- planned the research, for example:
- prepared a research proposal explaining the importance of conducting the research e.g. “This investigation will examine the significance of significance of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is an important topic because many New Zealanders were directly affected by this event...”
- developed relevant focus questions from preliminary research e.g. What economic, religious, humanitarian and social reasons brought Europeans to NZ? Why did the British want to have a Treaty with Maori? Why was the Treaty of Waitangi significant to New Zealanders at the time?
- specifically identified possible sources through preliminary reading (e.g. www.nzhistory.org – relevant photos and sound files, links to other relevant sites, 9 Primary; 11 secondary
- created a time-management plan (e.g. date on which a specified library will be visited and what resources in the library will be accessed to find evidence for which aspect of which focus question)
-
- selected and organised relevant historical evidence from both primary and secondary sources (e.g. relevant evidence is clearly identified by highlighting or similar means and directly linked to a focus question. This highlighting can also provide evidence of organisation, or organisation is by sorting of evidence by source type, focus question, etc.) Excerpts are entered into FOCUS QUESTION ANSWER PAGES. ALONG SIDE THIS IS COMMENT ON HOW THE INFORMATION ANSWERS THE QUESTION AND WHETHER IT IS VALUABLE IN TERMS OF AUTHENTICTY, DETAIL AND RELIABILITY EACH FQ PAGE IS COLOUR CODED WITH THE FOCUS QUESTION’S COLOUR
- THESE constitute annotated comments describing the links between the selected evidence and the focus question (e.g. Relevant to FQ1. This source answers my question by explaining that ….. It is not as good as the “God Save NZ” DVD – less detailed)
- selected and organised relevant historical evidence from both primary and secondary sources (e.g. relevant evidence is clearly identified by highlighting or similar means and directly linked to a focus question. This highlighting can also provide evidence of organisation, or organisation is by sorting of evidence by source type, focus question, etc.)
- recorded the details of the sources of selected evidence (e.g. author, title, publisher, city of publication, date of publication; website address, accession date; name of interviewee, date and place of interview)
- produced annotated comments that include assessment of the reliability of selected evidence (e.g. Relevant to FQ1. How my great aunt remained unmarried after the death of her fiancée at Gallipoli because a whole generation of men never returned from the war. Not as good as the “God Save NZ” DVD – less detailed. Take care: only one person’s experience)
- evaluated his/her research process, for example:
- explained the successes and difficulties encountered in conducting the research
- explained how the line of inquiry may have changed as evidence was accumulated
- identified the issues to consider for future inquiries (e.g. “I struck many difficulties in carrying out this research. Probably the biggest one came first. I went to the local rest home and asked if there was someone I could interview about his or her experiences with World War I veterans. The person I was given couldn’t hear what I was saying, and then said he didn’t trust being recorded, so that was a bad start. However, by accident I found that a neighbour had cared for her father for many years when he was an invalid. Although this was gathering second hand information I am confident that what I got was accurate – up to a point. I don’t suppose she would have told me intensely personal or ‘family’ things, and I was only going on her memory of a man who died 45 years ago. In some ways I would probably have been better to have spent my time researching sound archives to find interviews of people recorded much nearer the events being discussed. Sure enough, I did later find sources, which contradicted what my interviewee told me. For example…”
The examples above relate to only part of what is required, and are just indicative.
 The student has comprehensively researched an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders, using primary and secondary sources. This means the student has:
  • planned the research, for example:
- prepared a research proposal explaining the importance of conducting the research e.g. developed relevant focus questions from preliminary research e.g. “This investigation will examine the significance of significance of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is an important topic because many New Zealanders were directly affected by this event...”
- developed relevant focus questions from preliminary research e.g. What economic, religious, humanitarian and social reasons brought Europeans to NZ? Why did the British want to have a Treaty with Maori? Why was the Treaty of Waitangi significant to New Zealanders at the time?
- specifically identified possible sources through preliminary reading (e.g. www.nzhistory.org – relevant photos and sound files, links to other relevant sites) 9 Primary; 11 secondary
- created a time-management plan (e.g. date on which a specified library will be visited and what resources in the library will be accessed to find evidence for which aspect of which focus question)
  • selected and organised relevant historical evidence from both primary and secondary sources (e.g. relevant evidence is clearly identified by highlighting or similar means and directly linked to a focus question. This highlighting can also provide evidence of organisation, or organisation is by sorting of evidence by source type, focus question, etc.)
  • recorded the details of the sources of selected evidence (e.g. author, title, publisher, city of publication, date of publication; website address, accession date; name of interviewee, date and place of interview)
  • produced annotated comments that include assessment of the reliability of selected evidence (e.g. Relevant to FQ1. How my great aunt remained unmarried after the death of her fiancée at Gallipoli because a whole generation of men never returned from the war. Not as good as the “God Save NZ” DVD – less detailed. Take care: only one person’s experience)
  • Shown initiative in the gathering and selecting of relevant evidence, for example persevering with relevant evidence that is difficult to read or written in a style that is difficult to understand, accessing and using sources that are not readily available
  • evaluated his/her research process, for example:
- analysed the strength(s) and weakness(es) of the process
- explained the successes and difficulties encountered in conducting the research
- analysed how these strength(s) and weakness(es) were likely to impact on the validity of the findings, considered alternative research steps and/or line(s) of inquiry and/or methods, and their implications (e.g. “From this research process I have learned several important things. First of all it is useless to develop focus questions when you are unfamiliar with your context. When I wrote it, ‘What has been the lasting impression of New Zealand by the people of Turkey?’ seemed a good question to provide a summary for my Gallipoli research, but wanting that information and getting it are two different things. It is easy to get the New Zealand side of that but lacking the ability to read Turkish there was little I could gather on that question in the time I had available. I did actually get as far as accessing on-line Turkish newspapers but that was useless of course. To date I have had no response from the Turkish consulate in Wellington - which surprised me. Or maybe that answers my question. But anyway, some deeper thinking on the matter may have steered me away from the question in the first place…”
The examples above relate to only part of what is required, and are just indicative.

This part of the Assessment schedule uses WW1 as an exemplar of the level of detail expected at merit and excellence level.
Final grades will be decided using professional judgement based on a holistic examination of the evidence provided against the criteria in the Achievement Standard.